"The KRG and GOI have been at odds over the details of the HCL for years. But now there are new hopes that the conflicting factions might be close to an agreement that would result in a carbohydrate law. A recent non-finalized deal between the Kurdish and Iraqi governments, along with a meeting between Maliki and parliament speaker Osama Nujaifi over the oil law, have rekindled hopes that a resolution might be in sight. The deal between the KRG and GOI includes a provision that Baghdad will pay around $2 billion to foreign oil firms operating in Kurdistan as the cost of their operations. Maliki and Nujaifi have reached an agreement to accept the 2007 draft law on oil and gas which will be satisfying to the Iraqiya List and the Kurdistan Region as well."